Reptiles Definition

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Out and About: Laugh with Seattle comics, see 'Frog and Toad' or 'Goonies' outside    The Olympian

"Snakes are vilified, but they are an important part of the ecosystem," said Danielle Walkup, a research scientist for the NRI, which is a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife. "Snakes tend to be in the middle of a food web. They eat smaller things like rodents, so they can help with rodent control and can also be food for bigger things, so they are an important part of the food web. They are unique creatures." Most of NRI's work with the trio of threatened snakes deals with habitat restoration and assessment, partnering on early-stage reintroduction efforts, and pursuing general knowledge about the species. "For a lot of these species of conservation concern, there's not a lot of information known about them," Walkup said. "Our job is to go in and figure out things like how widespread they are, their habitat, genetics, how to catch them, and so on." A Unique Snake And Its Unique Home The Louisiana pinesna...

Many of us welcomed new puppies to our families over lockdown last year, as the Kennel Club saw dog ownership soar by nearly eight per cent to around 250,000. But the growing demand for some of the most popular breeds has seen prices rocket – meaning a dog will most likely cost you a great deal more today than it would just 18 months ago. Research from pet retailer Pets at Home shows that the average puppy in the UK costed a hefty £1,875 in 2020 – more than double the average price in 2019. And some breeds will set you back an average of nearly £3,000. Here are the 10 most expensive breeds of dog in the UK. A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription. The English Bulldog is the UK's most expensive dog, w...

Australian reptiles face serious conservation threats from illegal poaching fueled by international demand and the exotic pet trade. In a new study in Animal Conservation , researchers from the University of Adelaide and the Monitor Conservation Research Society (Monitor) investigated the extent of illegal trade in a well-known Australian lizard: the shingleback, also known as the bobtail or sleepy lizard. Using government records, media reports, and online advertisements, the researchers found clear evidence that many shinglebacks have been illegally poached from the wild and are smuggled overseas to be traded as pets. Author and PhD Candidate Adam Toomes from the University of Adelaide says: "While shinglebacks are a protected species in Australia, and can only be exported legally under a federal permit, there is little to no regulation of international trade once the animals have been smuggled out of the country. "Not only are our findings concerning from a conserv...

There are only two species of venomous snakes found on the northern Cumberland Plateau: The copperhead and the timber rattlesnake. Snakes. There is perhaps no wild animal that strikes more fear in the hearts of humans than these misunderstood, legless creatures that slither along the forest floor. Maybe the fear and distrust stems from the snake's role in the Bible — it was the serpent that tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, resulting in the fall of man, and Genesis Chapter 3 begins, "Now the serpent was more subtle (cunning) than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made." Or, maybe it is because, as comedian Bill Engvall described the snake, "It can move, but it ain't got any legs. That ain't right." Mostly, though, we're afraid of snakes because it's human nature to fear what we don't understand. Hopefully, after reading through this guide to snakes of the Cumberland...

A Georgia family was left shocked on Sunday night after discovering a family of 18 snakes in their home. Trish Wilcher, who lives in Augusta, found the snakes underneath her bed after spotting one of them on the floor. She told Georgia news outlet WJBF she thought the snake was "a piece of fuzz on the floor" at first, but then noticed it moved. She said: "And then a second later another piece moved and I went to my husband, 'we have snakes!'" Wilcher's husband Max used a grabber tool to place the snakes in a linen bag. Wilcher said Max took the snakes outside to a creek area and released them. In Georgia, it is illegal to kill non-venomous snakes. Wilcher documented the ordeal on Facebook, where one post proved popular with over 1,000 likes and 680 shares as of early Tuesday morning. Photos show what appear to be a small number of the snakes curled up on a carpet. Wilcher said she and her husband had found "17 babies and a momma" and were loo...

VERONA — As more prospective pet owners look towards the exotic to fill their home, passionate people like Shelley Kemp, owner of PetZotics in Verona help fill that need. PetZotics opened its doors in early November and offers a wide variety of exotic reptiles, from bearded dragons and iguanas to snakes and chameleons. On top of this, furry critters like hedgehogs, guinea pigs, and ferrets await at PetZotics for someone looking to take them home. Kemp has been keeping and caring for reptiles for over a decade now and has bred crested geckos, horned mountain dragons, bearded dragons, and chameleons. "We sell a lot of stuff you wouldn't exactly find at a Petsmart," Kemp said. "And when it comes down to it, some people like the scaly and some don't. So I wanted to go both ways and have something for everybody." When asked how business has been these last six months, Kemp said the community has been so good to her. "I've had some many people c...

According to a paper titled 'Trends in snakebite deaths in India from 2000 to 2019 in a nationally representative mortality study', India recorded 1.2 million snakebite deaths in 20 years. It reveals that an average of 58,000 deaths are recorded annually.  "Snakebite deaths of human beings, as well as the killing of these serpents by humans, arise due to one major problem, the lack of identification between venomous and non-venomous snakes," says Surya Keerthi, a snake rescuer.  Russell's viper, Common Krait, Indian Cobra and Saw-scaled viper are the four deadliest snakes in India and are referred to as 'Big four'. People commonly misidentify snakes and tend to kill them as many non-venomous snakes mimic venomous snakes in appearance. In some cases, people mistake venomous snakes for non-venomous snakes and get bitten by them. Identifying venomous and non-venomous snakes: Around 3,000 species of the snake are present across the globe out ...

Many of us welcomed new puppies to our families over lockdown last year, as the Kennel Club saw dog ownership soar by nearly eight per cent to around 250,000. But the growing demand for some of the most popular breeds has seen prices rocket – meaning a dog will most likely cost you a great deal more today than it would just 18 months ago. Research from pet retailer Pets at Home shows that the average puppy in the UK costed a hefty £1,875 in 2020 – more than double the average price in 2019. And some breeds will set you back an average of nearly £3,000. Here are the 10 most expensive breeds of dog in the UK. A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription. The English Bulldog is the UK's most expensive dog, w...

Mac users today began experiencing unexpected issues that included apps taking minutes to launch, stuttering and non-responsiveness throughout macOS, and other problems. The issues seemed to begin close to the time when Apple began rolling out the new version of macOS, Big Sur—but it affected users of other versions of macOS, like Catalina and Mojave. Other Apple services faced slowdowns, outages, and odd behavior, too, including Apple Pay, Messages, and even Apple TV devices. It didn't take long for some Mac users to note that trustd —a macOS process responsible for checking with Apple's servers to confirm that an app is notarized—was attempting to contact a host named oscp.apple.com but failing repeatedly. This resulted in systemwide slowdowns as apps attempted to launch, among other things. What a brave new world – some server goes down, and you can't use your applications anymore. ...

By Riley Black Illustration of the temnospondyl species Prionosuchus plimmeri JAMES KUETHER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY One of the greatest transitions in evolutionary history was the emergence of tetrapods, or four-legged vertebrates, onto land. By about 340 million years ago, fins had become fingers and limbs, shoulder and hip joints had changed to bear weight, and an array of amphibious creatures had begun to live along the water's edge. But an analysis of some early tetrapods now suggests that not long after they made a home on land, some species became adapted to life in the water all over again. Aja Mia Carter at the University of Pennsylvania and her colleagues focused on a group of early amphibians called temnospondyls, roughly salamander-like tetrapods that spun off a great diversity of species between 295 and 330 million years ago. Rather than looking at the limbs of these animals, though, Carter and her team analysed the ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Kurgo dog harness vs. Puppia dog harness    WFLA

THE EVERGLADES, FLORIDA Gillian Hicks and her boyfriend, Michael Litersky, were sitting on the porch of Hicks's apartment in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, when they noticed a strange animal slinking along the fence. It looked a bit like a raccoon, but its color was too mustardy, and a bit like a cat, but its tail flexed and gripped with remarkable dexterity. A Google search suggested the mysterious beast might be some type of primate, maybe a lemur. Whatever it was, it was cute—with the big, imploring eyes and rounded ears of a teddy bear—and seemed friendly. The internet says lemurs eat fruit, so Litersky set out some watermelon. As the sun dipped into the Gulf of Mexico on that muggy summer evening in 2019, the couple watched the maybe-a-lemur grasp the melon chunks in its clawed forepaws and nibble away at them. The next morning, Hicks awoke to screams. Sprinting out of bed, she discovered Litersky and the little animal doing battle in the kitchen. As Hicks would later explain to a...